Anxious Bannon Contacted ‘SNL’ To See How They Would Portray Him

Comedian and film star Melissa McCarthy created an instant sensation when she guested on Saturday Night Live earlier this year and savaged the Trump administration in her gender-bending portrayal of then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

Then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was apparently so anxious about how he was going to be spoofed on the show following Melissa’s performance that he actually placed a call to get the inside scoop about what the Saturday Night Live writers had in store for him.

McCarthy’s take on Spicer clearly scored a direct hit on President Donald Trump’s deep insecurities. Trump was, by all accounts, greatly upset that a woman was chosen to play his male press mouthpiece. Likely hoping to avoid the fallout of another Spicer-like portrayal, Bannon was spurred to action to get advance information. Described Wall Street Journal contributor Eli Stokols in a multi-part tweet, “This reminds me of a story I’ve had in my notes. File under: ‘Bannon doth protest too much.’ In short, Bannon did care very much about how SNL would portray him – because he knew Trump would see and care about it. He saw Sean Spicer’s stock drop with Trump after he was portrayed by a woman and was concerned SNL might give him similar treatment.”

Continued Stokols, “So Bannon reached Darrell Hammond, the SNL announcer and only conservative cast member, to see what the writers were planning. Ultimately, he was relieved about the ‘grim reaper’ character the show used for him, altho that sketch would hurt him w Trump, too. But the claim that he ‘didn’t care’ about his media image — as he’s doing a ’60 Minutes’ sit-down — is, well, rich.” Stokols is referring to an interview Bannon recently gave with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes in which he claimed, “I don’t need the affirmation of the mainstream media. I don’t care what they say. They can call me an anti-Semite. They can call me racist. They call me nativist. They can call me anything you want, okay? As long as we’re driving this agenda for the working men and women of this country, I’m happy.” Do you think Bannon is secretly as thin-skinned as Trump? Watch one of the Saturday Night Live sketches featuring the Grim Reaper as Bannon below:

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